Sen. Kerry, Mayor Koch tour Quincy downtown redevelopment area

Sen. John Kerry and Quincy Mayor Tom Koch strolled down Quincy’s Hancock Street Saturday afternoon to see the area slated for a $1 billion redevelopment project.

Sen. John Kerry and Mayor Tom Koch strolled down Hancock Street on a brisk, sunny Saturday afternoon, as the senator took a closer look at some of the areas included in a major $1 billion redevelopment project.

Kerry, the senior Democrat on the Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship, has been visiting local businesses across the state to hear directly from constituents.

Their walk began at City Hall at 2:30 p.m., after a brief private meeting. They included a stop at the historic Hancock Cemetery next to City Hall. The mayor showed the senator some of the headstones that date back several centuries and Kerry commented on the erosion of a colonial grave carving by what he described as “acid rain.”

Josiah Quincy Jr. is buried in the cemetery, along with several of John Adams’ ancestors.

The two were accompanied on the tour by state Sen. Michael Morrissey and state Rep. Bruce Ayers, both Quincy Democrats.

The mayor wanted to show Kerry different sections of the proposed $1 billion redevelopment. The city plans to borrow $250 million to upgrade the area’s infrastructure including utilities, sidewalks and parking.

Under the proposed arrangement, New York developer Street-Works would do the infrastructure work and be paid back by the city bond, but only if the redevelopment is producing enough new tax revenue to cover the city’s annual bond payments.

The project would take several years and the new Quincy Chamber of Commerce will work with economic redevelopment agencies.